“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” ― Albert Einstein

mythopoesis

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The Human psyche; innermost self, inner ego, the soul, mind or spirit. This hidden and extensively complex part of all humans has been studied and experimented with for centuries, and the reason seems clear. All our outer workings, our behaviors, our expressions result from the functions within us. Jung is one psychologist who delved within himself to understand the dissatisfaction and inner turmoil he felt. “He had to find a way, a method to heal himself from within. Since he didn’t know what to do, he decided to engage with the impulses and images of the unconscious” (C.G. Jung, 1997). Later he called this “Active imagination” opening ones self to the unconscious and giving free rein to fantasy, while maintaining an active, attentive, conscious point of view.

Fear C.G. Jung- from “The red book”

Many of Jung’s psychological concepts came form his experiences with Active imagination; his theory is that there is three parts to the human psyche, the ego- conscious mind, personal unconscious mind- not presently conscious but can be, and the collective unconscious- our psychic inheritance. According to Jung our collective unconscious is responsible for many inbuilt ways that we experience things, these he calls Archetypes. For example the Father characterized as a guide or authoritarian. There is also the shadow, this archetype is considered the dark side of the ego, the things we are capable of but hide or disguise. Most people have many hidden things, there not necessarily bad but can be kept secret for many reasons. Jung also believed that ultimately all people are bisexual having female and male traits, and the roles we play are due to our gender. Anima is the female aspect present in the unconscious of the male and Animus is the male aspects present in the female.

Mythopoesis: The human construction of myths

What is a Myth? “A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with no basis for fact or explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.”

So its obvious why humans from all walks of life have loved making them? Mythopoesis is basically a form of creative expression, its an outlet for invention and imagination. Like the high fantasy stories by J.R.R. Tolkien, he indulges in mythopoesis as he invents whole new worlds and characters never seen or thought of before.

Workshop activity

Identify between 2 or more scenes in movies, books or games that have evoked a powerful emotion you thought was odd, unexpected or significant.

The land before time- When Little foots mum is laying in the pouring rain and as shes dying she says to him “”I’ll be with you, even if you can’t see me.” That moment was terribly sad, i still remember it so clearly even though i was very young. I cried my heart out for poor little foot as i imagined the feeling of loosing my own mum.

Marley & me- Although i found the movie quite boring i did cry a lot in the end when Marley had to be euthanized. As the family buried him under a tree in their front yard it reminded me of when i had to do the same with my beloved dog Desy.

Discuss what it was about the scenes(s) that elicited that reaction and try to identify if there is there a pattern in your responses that reveals something about you.

I can recognize that loss is something i don’t deal well with, its something I’ve never really understood and would rather avoid thinking about than facing it. When i was younger and a movie made me cry i remember i would never watch it again, i would always go for the feel good movies and avoid anything too meaningful. Through my responses to these scenes i can see that loosing something i value or love is an unconscious burden that i would rather not deal with. The feelings of hurt and loss seem too painful to me, i don’t want to indulge in them for the sake of a movie or a book!